Chuy's — Restaurant in Cary

My first (and last) experience here was absolutely awful. Having read the menu and reviews beforehand, I was already skeptical but decided to give it a chance because my friends were excited about going.

Upon entering, my first impression was that cleanliness and presentation left a lot to be desired, as did hygiene practices. The floor looked as if it had not been swept prior to seating us at our table. And the table had hardly been wiped off. Servers did not take pride in their appearance and were walking around with dirty clothing, underwear hanging out of their waistband, etc. I saw numerous servers touching their hair, face, etc. I watched some of the drink handling behind the bar (using said dirty hands to grab garnishes such as limes directly and putting them into beer bottles, grabbing cups to refill by drinking surface and not by base, grabbing (unwrapped) straws by drinking tip, etc.)

The food was terrible. We were brought a basket of broken chips and had to ask for a refill after waiting for a while to be noticed. Our (table of 4) orders all came incorrectly, some with incorrect sides and some with totally wrong entrees. The rice was hard and old, the lettuce was wilted. Any questions about the menu and we were told by our waiter “I’m not sure, I’m kind of new” without any effort on his part to figure it out. I was so sketched out by the food handling that I didn’t want to eat, but was starving. I ended up eating the fried shrimp out of my tacos. Rather than asking how we’d like the checks, the waiter assumed that each male/female pairing sitting together were a couple (we weren’t) and brought two checks for the 4 of us and handed them to the men. At this point we didn’t want to even try to negotiate splitting the check or handing him multiple cards because we didn’t even have faith that would be handled appropriately.

All in all, for some broken tortilla chips and about 8 fried shrimp, I paid $15 for my meal + tip. Incredibly disappointing and very unsettling to think about the potential health repercussions of eating there. There are so many quality restaurants in our area that I would highly discourage anyone from coming here. I learned my lesson and...

This place is fantastic. I've been sick of the cookie cutter Mexican places around the Triangle; having grown up at least partially in Texas I love Tex/Mex and despite NC's relatively large hispanic population, we don't seem to have great Mexican food. Chuy's is Tex/Mex, which is fine by me, not really traditional Mexican, but it's great food. If you like places like Los Tres, La Rancherita, La Careta, ect, you might be disappointed. Those places are geared more to a heavily Americanized flavor of Mexican food that's pretty predictable but decent, and if your definition of great Tex/Mex is On the Border...well Chuys is a little different. Everything was fresh, the Pico they brought out with freshly pressed tortillas was excellent. Service was a little slow, but our waitress was extremely friendly and to her credit, did everything within her power to make us happy when she realized she had neglected our table. I got a pretty good smattering of food to sample some of the options, a burrito, a relleno and an enchilada, all of which were fantastic. They run heavy of refried beans but theirs are pretty tasty; typically most refried beans taste like mud to me, but Chuy's were actually seasoned and they had a good flavor. Their salsa verde is pretty fantastic, the chicken in my enchilada wasn't processed or heavily shredded, it was a pulled chicken breast with white meat, seasoned with lime. The relleno was filled with grilled hamburger and cheese, then deep fried. They left the seeds in but it was a mild poblano, not an Anaheim, so it wasn't overly spicey. The burrito was filled with refried beans and cheese, a little light on the sauce I think but overall really tasty. I also tried some of their flan, which was amazing. Perfectly creamy, not burned or overdone with a caramel vanilla sauce that I swear I'd just like an IV drip of. To top if off the entire meal with tax was just over $20. You can't eat this well for that anywhere in Raleigh or Cary, their food is super affordable. My advice is skip sodas, you will be eating a lot, their...

Fantastic family restaurant that serves fresh Tex-Mex dishes with unique flavors and twists.

Social Distancing: All employees wore masks, seating had at minimum one empty table between. Saw many people cleaning and disinfecting pretty much constantly. When at the table masks don't interfere with the customer eating, as you're allowed to remove your mask once seated.

Food: A spicy ranch dip is served with your chips, a nice nod to the Tex-Mex style of mixing ranch with your salsa. The queso dip is definitely worth the $8, it was so good, we almost ordered a second one. How good can cheese be? Pretty dang good. The only thing I can compare it to is this German beer cheese dip that I had a few years ago. Steak in my Burrito was legit steak, not tiny bits of a flank steak. It was fresh, cooked to a medium-rare pink. The Ranchero sauce was a perfect recommendation by our server after she noticed we don't like super-hot.

Service: We had five glasses, all five had to be refilled three times during our stay, we had two baskets of chips that needed refilled three times, and our server never missed a single beat. Madison, you are awesome! Thank you. We left an almost 30% tip, and wish we could have left more tbh. She's really good communicating with kids and families without coming across pushy or that you're just a bunch x that's being checked.

Caveat: The owner was actively involved in every aspect, I first saw him at the front door asking if there was any backup to sitting, saw him cleaning, carrying out food, clearing tables, pointing out empty glasses to servers, he was on it. I'm always impressed when I see an owner actually owning the business from the front to the back lines.

We...